Baseball legend Hank Aaron died late last week at 86 years old. While he broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in 1974 as an Atlanta Brave, he had close ties to Wisconsin. Hammerin’ Hank won the World Series with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, he spent the last two seasons of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers, and hit his last home run at Milwaukee County Stadium.

And before all of that, Aaron’s early years were spent in “little town called Eau Claire.” Author Dean Robbins tells us more about his time playing for the Eau Claire Bears.